The Million Dollar Demise
R.M. Johnson, 2009
Simon & Schuster
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781416596271
Summary
Picking up where The Million Dollar Deception left off, Freddy Ford knocks on Nate Kenny's door, storms into the house, and shoots both Nate and Nate's ex-wife Monica. But he doesn't stop there — before driving off, Freddy manages to escape with little Nathaniel, Nate and Monica's beloved adopted son, while little Layla sleeps upstairs.
Nate is expected to survive the brutal attack, but Monica is left in a coma, and doctors are not certain that she will ever recover. When Lewis Waters — Freddy's best friend and Layla's actual father — visits the hospital to see Monica, Nate bargains with him: if Lewis can get Freddy arrested, Nate will give him back his little girl.
Meanwhile, Daphanie Coleman, the woman Nate had planned to marry before he sought revenge on Monica, rushes to Nate's side with plans to get him back by making herself available to him in his time of crisis. By chance, she meets Lewis while visiting Monica's bedside, and the two devise a plan so both get what they want.
When Monica finally awakens, she opens her eyes to a world in which Daphanie and Nate are hiding an affair, Lewis and Daphanie are harboring nasty secrets, and Nate has plotted to steal another man's child in the name of revenge. Will Monica forgive Nate, whom she was about to remarry? Will she uncover the truth behind the love triangle of Daphanie, Lewis, and Nate? And, more important, can the tragic lovers escape a second attempt on their lives? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—R. Marcus Johnson
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.S., University of Louisian; M.F.A, Chicago State
University
• Currently—lives in Chicago, Illinois
RM Johnson was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. After high school, he served five years in the United States Army. After which he received his Bachelors degree in science, from the University of Louisiana. He worked as an x-ray technologist, and radiation therapist for a number of years while continuously working on his writing, and earned a Masters degree in creative writing from Chicago State University
In 1996, RM wrote The Harris Men, published in 1999. Since then, RM Johnson has written nine novels, including the best-sellers, The Harris Family, Dating Games, and his "Million Dollar" trilogy. Stacie and Cole was his first young adult novel, published in December 2007 by Hyperion Books.
Johnson's "Million Dollar" trilogy includess The Million Dollar Divorce (2004), followed by The Million Dollar Deception (2008) and The Million Dollar Demise (2009).
In June of 2009, RM threw his ring into the non-fiction ring with Why Men Fear Marriage. (Adapted fom the author's website.)
Book Reviews
The crazed conclusion of Johnson's "Million Dollar" trilogy opens with a literal bang. Freddy Ford shoots millionaire Nate Kenny and Nate's ex-wife, Monica, at the couple's Chicago mansion and kidnaps their three-year-old adopted son, Nathaniel. The reason? Nate reneged on rewarding Freddy for his part in a blackmail scheme that led to the arrest of Freddy's best friend, Lewis Waters, in the previous book, The Million Dollar Deception (2008). Lewis was getting too cozy with Monica, whom Nate is eager to remarry. As a result of their serious gunshot wounds, Nate and Monica (who's in a coma) miss Lewis's hearing, at which he's set free. In a weird twist of fate, Lewis agrees to help Nate find Freddy, who's holding Nathaniel for $5 million ransom—but only if Nate will do Lewis a favor. Meanwhile, Nate's spurned lover, Daphanie Coleman, pregnant with another man's child, plots her revenge. The rushed ending suggests the duplicitous Nate could return to commit further mischief in a sequel.
Publishers Weekly
Johnson ties up the loose threads of his fast-paced, thuggish trilogy. In The Million Dollar Divorce (2004) and The Million Dollar Deception (2008), Nate Kenny manipulated, interfered, bought off and blackmailed his way into the life he wanted; when wife Monica couldn't bear him a child, he hired Lewis Waters to seduce her so he could save his fortune in a no-contest divorce. But everything has repercussions, and this final installment opens with the appearance of Freddy Ford, Lewis' best friend, who has lost everything he loves thanks to Nate. Freddy shows up at Nate's house, shoots him four times, shoots Monica in the head (the two were reconciling) and kidnaps their adopted son Nathaniel. He leaves Chicago for Atlanta, killing a cop on the way, to hide out with old girlfriend Joni while he figures out what to do with the toddler in the back seat and the law on his trail. Against all odds Nate survives, and Monica lies in a coma with good chances for a full recovery. The story is complicated by Daphanie, Nate's girlfriend before he reconciled with Monica. Daphanie, pregnant by Trevor, tells Nate that the baby is really his in an attempt to woo him back while Monica is still out of commission. Lewis is trying to regain custody of his daughter Layla, who lives at Monica and Nate's house, though he is not sure he is her biological father. Deceptions, more killing, a budding romance between Lewis and a social worker—it's a lot of plot in one book. There are some strange, sad moments, as when Freddy and Joni reassure themselves they'd make great parents, and no one survives intact in this kind of modern pulp noir, driven by a nihilism that sees deception as the world's lingua franca. The over-fed conclusion to an African-American soap opera.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Million Dollar Demise:
1. If you have read the previous two installments in Johnson's Million Dollar series, how does this one stack up? Is it as suspenseful or compelling? Are the characters consistent with their roles in the previous novel(s)?
2. What is Freddy's motive for shooting Nate at the opening of the book? Can Freddy be held blameless for his anger toward Nate?
3. What kind of character is Nate? What drives him? Does this man have any redeeming qualities? What is it that makes scoundrels appealing—either as real life individuals or as fictional characters?
4. What about Monica? How do you feel about her reconciliation with Nate?
5. How does it happen that Lewis agrees to help Nate find Freddy and Nate's son Nathaniel? Is Lewis nuts?!
6. What about Daphne Coleman? What is her stake in all of this?
7. Is there any kind of future for Freddy and Joni? What kind of parents would they make?
8. Were you surprised by the ending? Are you satisfied with how the book ends—does The Million Dollar Demise deliver for you—in terms of page-turning suspense and narrative power?
9. It looks as if Johnson is setting readers up for another installment in his series. Want to try to guess what shape it might take?
10. Deception and betrayal are at the heart of this book. Is this the way the real world works? In other words, is this book a depiction of life?
11. Finally, does anyone in this book/series have a redeeming quality? Which characters, if any, do you find sympathetic? Anyone you find yourself rooting for? If you had to choose one character, who you would want to find in your own life?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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